There are 29 candidates standing for the ACT election in the Woden and Weston-Creek based electorate of Murrumbidgee. Click or touch on a photo for more information about that candidate.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Jill Mail describes herself as a proud Australian who cares deeply for the environment and diverse wildlife. She said her concern is "particularly for future generations, including my eight grandchildren". Mail said she believed increasing population was swallowing up land, Australia's most precious asset, with roads and shoddy housing developments.
Mark O'Connor is a poet and writer, who often focusses on environmental issues. He is an expert on the effects of population growth, having written several publications on the issue including the books This Tired Brown Land and (with William Lines) Overloading Australia. O'Connor has published poetry on the Great Barrier Reef and the Blue Mountains. O'Connor has won a string of awards, has undertaken fellowships abroad, and was appointed the HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University. He edited the much re-printed Oxford anthology Two Centuries of Australian Poetry. O'Connor has recently retired as an Australian Conservation Foundation councillor, and has translated three Shakespearean plays into contemporary English verse, which saw him awarded a doctorate by the University of Western Australia. He wants to continue translating additional Shakespear plays into contemporary English, saying it was "very sad that 400 years of change in the English language have left many people unable to enjoy his works in their original versions".
Michael Lindfield was involved in setting up Canberra's first community bank branches at Calwell and Wanniassa, and said he helped lay the foundations to include Curtin. He said the initiative helped drive local employment, re-introduce face-to-face services, and increase business investment in suburban hubs. Lindfield said he had more than 25 years of positive community involvement. He said he made representations to the ACT and federal governments to design, fund and construct an outdoor performing stage in Tuggeranong Town Park. Lindfield was the immediate past president of Tuggeranong Festival. He said that as the convener of Brindabella Residents' Group, he made submissions to on the future planning of the Woden town centre "to ensure it remains vibrant and with adequate facilities and services".
Fergus Brown was born in Melbourne but spent his early years in his parents' native New Zealand. He had an itinerant youth, moving around regional Victoria due to his father's work as a radiologist. Brown is a student of history and languages at the ANU. He says he is passionate about preserving civil liberties and making Canberra a better place for business by removing restrictive red tape.
Brendan Cumpston grew up in Weston Creek and is a long-term resident of Canberra. He works as an IT consultant. His true passion in life is music and he has been a guitarist for a number of bands over the past 20 years. Cumpston believes that government regulations on the entertainment sector have been especially damaging for the live music scene.
Hamer moved to Canberra from Melbourne to study computer science at the ANU. He developed an interest in libertarianism after reading widely on economics and political philosophy. Hamer says he believes that the ACT Liberal Democrats have the best suite of policies to address Canberra's challenges.
Alex Klinkon worked in the Defence Department, and holds degrees in economics and finance. He has more than a decade's experience in project management in government and industry. He is a strong supporter of civil liberties, and believes that the platform of the ACT. Liberal Democrats what Canberra needs "after a long period of interventionist government and nanny state regulation".
Independents
Margaret Webber says she has always believed that if you don't like what is happening, you should at least try and do something about it. She said Canberra was a well-planned city, but she has concerns about planning, the removal of green spaces and building high rise building along important roads. She said while the health care system was great, it was not good that some had to travel interstate to access some specialist services. She is concerned about light rail and does not support the tram.
The former teacher says the ACT education system offers some of the best public education in Australia, and she would work work to improve it.
Brendan Whyte has been a proud southsider for almost a decade. He wants to halve the base MLA pay to that of the average Canberran fulltime salary, and local politicians them to use economy, not business class air travel. Mr Whyte also wants to remove their $25,000 transport allowance, increase the weighting given to community objections to development applications, increase housing affordability, reduce homelessness and improve social inclusion. Mr Whyte also hopes to introduce an ACTION bus service to the airport, use rear bus doors for (dis)embarking, reduce cash fares and put MyWay ticket reloaders in every shopping centre. Also on his agenda is retaining all of the former Phillip pitch'n'putt course as public open space, linking Red Hill and Isaacs Ridge parklands with a footbridge over Hindmarsh Drive, and ensuring public after-hours access to school playgrounds, tennis courts and sport fields. Mr Whyte wants to reduce pokies numbers, remove redundant fencing from parklands, including the Tuggeranong Parkway fence, vegetate median strips, and protect the Murrumbidgee River corridor.
